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Mixee Labs Team Joins Amazon

We are happy to announce that the Mixee Labs team is joining Amazon. Last fall, we worked with Amazon to launch customizable products in their 3D Printing Store. We will now bring our software to Amazon and join the 3D Printing team full time.

We want to make 3D printed products more accessible, and Amazon is the best place for that. We have been impressed by Amazon’s focus on customer experience, innovation, and long term thinking.

Andrew Thomas will take over operations of Mixee Labs, which will remain an independent company not owned by Amazon. We expect customer experience and product selection to improve under Andrew’s leadership.

Andrew is a designer and artist living in Brooklyn. He also works at Shapeways and has produced a body of work in a wide range of materials, including the Fantasy Football Trophy creator available on Mixee Labs. You can follow him on Medium and Twitter.

We look forward to bringing product design, customization, and 3D printing to more customers!

The Mixee Labs Team
Aaron and Nancy

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Mixee Bags

I wanted a new bag, so I 3D printed one! Here’s the first ever Mixee Bag. It’s a work in progress, but I think it’s a mighty fine lookin’ start.

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Yes, this bag is fully 3D printed on a desktop printer. And yes, the hinges are printed in place. And yes, it is functional. I’ve been using the cross body version below for the past month walking around NYC. It has replaced my old tote. 

I had to figure out how to make 3D printed plastic flexible and, well, bag-like. The triangles are hinged, so the “fabric” can fold. 

But why stop at the tote? This is 3D printing after all. And with 3D printing, each print can be customized. So I created a system that can generate different sizes and styles. For example, a cross body bag with a long, twisted link chain. 

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I also made a wallet. Well.. I made a few wallets. There are so many colors to try. By using a heated bed, I can create a smooth and shiny surface. Mmm.. shiny!

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The clasp is magnetized so the bags and wallets just snap shut, because nobody likes fiddling around with buttons and buckles. 

Each side of the bag is printed in one piece. The hinges on each surface are printed in place, so the “fabric” moves and bends right out of the printer. 

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The two sides are then manually assembled together using 3D printed components that snap into place. 

I’m still iterating on the design. Trying out different geometries, sizes, colors, chains, hinges, all sorts of fun stuff. So the story of the Mixee Bag is to be continued. Stay tuned!

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Mixee Labs and Amazon Team Up to Launch Personalizable Products on Amazon

Mixee Labs and Amazon have teamed up to bring interactivity to Amazon’s 3D Printing Store. For the first time, Amazon is embedding an online widget—a personalization app for your desktop browser—to enables customers to make unique, 3d printed products.

Amazon's widget for personalized Mixee Labs bobble heads
Our Bobble Heads being personalized on Amazon’s page

We’re excited that Amazon is venturing more into 3d printing and enabling customers to not just buy, but to create and remix Mixee Labs’ products. That’s at the core of what 3d printing is about—empowering people to create.

Here are some of Mixee Labs products available to personalize on Amazon.


Miniature Swords designed by Michael Inglis

Create over 1.5 million different combinations. Choose from blades, handles, guards, and pommels. These swords are sized to fit snuggly in the hands of standard LEGO Minifigs, but they are not in any way made or endorsed by the LEGO company.



Quark Jewelry designed by Stijn van der Linden (Virtox)

Create your own jewelry inspired by the intricate movements of subatomic particles



Vase Topper designed by Peter Albertz

Reuse old jars and glasses and transform them into beautiful, custom vases



Slim Wallet designed by Nxt3d

Under a centimeter thin, these wallets are perfect for those on the go



Dog Bone Tag designed by Michael Mueller (Pookas)

Create your own mini bobbling doppleganger



Customized Bobble Head by Mixee Labs



You can visit Amazon’s 3D Printing Store to find other 3D printed products.

We are excited that Amazon is diving more into 3D printing, and what this can mean for the future of 3D printing and the future of retail.

Nancy vs. Overhangs, Round 2

A while back, I printed a chair. This chair was not really designed for desktop printing since there were a lot of crazy overhangs–areas that needs support material. Anybody with a desktop printer knows that removing support material is no fun. No fun at all

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While browsing the r/3dprinting the other day, I stumbled across people discussing a slicing software called Simplify3D. Its users clearly loved the software. Things that raised my eyebrows:

  • It slices very fast. This can save time if you need to make iterations.
  • You have control over how to print specific parts of your model, and whether to add supports for specific parts of your model.
  • It contains some rudimentary file fixing so you don’t need to carefully unify all your intersecting meshes.
  • The support structures were rumored to come off quite easily.

The downside (there’s always a downside) is that the software costs $140. But given all the trouble I had with slicing and support removal, I decided to give it a go. 

I was not disappointed. 

The supports were so easily removed. I just gave it a slight tug and the whole thing unravels. It’s like pulling yarn! 

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Unfortunately, I still managed to snap off the itty bitty legs of this chair. The support material you see in the photo above actually supports both the underside and the handles of the chair. So pulling it applied too much pressure on the bottom legs. 

This is where my favorite feature of Simplify3D comes in to save the day! I can select exactly where I want support material. So I repositioned the support and basically told the printer to generate separate support for the bottom seat cushion part, and separate support for the arm rests.

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And BINGO!

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The support was so lightly touching the bottom of the seat cushion that I was able to separate the chair for the block of support material when removing the chair from the printbed!

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But now the real test! How to remove support from the armrests while keeping those itty bitty legs in tact. 

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I had to be careful, but it was actually quite easy to to. As you can see, the support just peeled right off. I didn’t even have to use an Xacto knife. 

And the final results…

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What’s next?

I printed this using 0.2mm resolution, which is a bit on the rough side for something this small. You can see the steps on the arm rests pretty clearly. When I have some more time, I think I’m going to try this print at 0.1mm resolution and see how that improves the final print. I hear there’s an option to print the outer layer at one resolution, and the inner infills at another resolution. That way you get the smoothness on the outside without increasing your print time so much. 

I look forward to keep trying different things with my new printer and slicer. Keep you posted!

This is one of our first 3d prints with the Tinkerines Ditto+ printer. 

For modeling this guy, we drew up this chair quick with our (unreleased) modeling web app, the Mixee Popper. We basically extruded various cross sections. You can try it out yourself at: http://www.mixeelabs.com/mixeepopper. 

Peeling off the supports, this step was easier than I imagined. The supports did peel off. The hard part was navigating the nooks and crannies of the model. You can see that the little legs broke, so I had to glue and leave it to rest overnight.

The next morning, the glue settled and the chair was ready for use! Well, for use by Lego Minifigs anyway.